My Most Excellent European Adventure, Day 6: Cold weather and castles...

Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Rothenburg/Rhine Valley Germany

Today was the first bad weather/ cold day we have had. After almost a week of beautiful clear, sunny skies, we woke up to gray skies and rain. And cold. It was only about 50, quite a change from our 70+ sunny weather. We have been so lucky so far, so our luck was bound to run out. After breakfast at the hotel, we drove the 5 minute drive back to Rothenburg a d did some more shopping... once the stores were open. Most stores didn't open until 10:00. We made sure to stop at the Kathe Wolfhart store. It was amazing and huge. It's like a never ending maze through a Christmas winter wonderland. It's covered with Christmas trees, lights, nutcrackers, villages, ornaments, etc. etc. etc. Very impressive to see. Unfortunately, impressive prices. Hence, I didn't end up buying anything there. Just managed to get this contraband photo:

I LOVE the cobblestone streets throughout the entire city. Not sure if I'd like driving on them in this car though...

View of the city from the wall

You can see part of the wall that surrounds the city here

After Rothenburg, we drove to Weisbaden to see my friend Lindsey. Yeah!! It turns out she was on the way we needed to go. I'm so glad I got to see her. I really miss being able to talk with her. She had her two kids with her. Eva is 4 and Gabe is 3. They were adorable and so excited to see the castles. I rode with her and the other girls followed while we drove along the Rhine river to look at all the castles. We wanted to to a boat cruise, but we couldn't work out the timing and the weather was cold and windy. But, the drive was spectacular! We saw about 10 castles over the course of our 40 minute drive. So green and well maintained. I believe this must be some of the most picturesque land in the world. Some of the bigger, more well-maintained casltes have been turned into hotels. That would be a fun place to stay! There was a small castle on a tiny island in the middle of the river. Apparantly a kind wanted to live there so he could tax all the boats that went by. After we saw the castles we stopped at a cool little town and walked around for a bit.

Our car!

This was someone's house... apparantly they like Easter

 After we left Lindsey we set off to drive back to Brussels. About a 3 hour drive. WOW! What an amazing exhausting few days. I can't believe how much we have done in so short a time. On the way home we drove (for a very short time) through the Netherlands. That makes 5 countries we have been in: Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourh (we drove through shortly on the way to Germany) and the Netherlands. A lot of miles and territory. So amazing. Once we made it back to the Passey's, we had dinner, planned out our hotel for Amsterdam, did some laundry, and went to bed.